'Star Wars' Terrorists Storm Pakistani Naval Base

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'Star Wars' Terrorists Storm Pakistani Naval Base

The Pakistan Taliban launched a brazen attack on a Pakistani naval base, killing at least 11 people and destroying two spy planes provided by the United States. Not only did the melee last through the night, the terrorists appeared to call on the power of the Dark Side of the Force to press their assault.

This is the second time in under two years that the Pakistani Taliban have struck deep and destructively into the heart of Pakistan's military. The first, in October 2009, targeted the military's General Headquarters in Rawalpindi. Like the Rawalpindi attack, the raid on Karachi's PNS Mehran base – very, very far from the tribal areas – most likely involved operatives with knowledge of the facility. Not only were they able to infiltrate successfully, they found the hangars housing the P-3 Orion maritime surveillance aircraft, blowing them up like the Death Star.

Let's pause for the message here. The Orions are supplied by the United States, something of a bribe for Pakistan's counterterrorism aid. They play absolutely no role against al-Qaida: Orions hunt submarines – Indian submarines. It's possible that the bin Laden killing prompted the Taliban to target any U.S.-supplied spycraft. But they attacked a navy base, not the Shamsi airfield used for the drone war. The Pakistani Taliban appear to be saying: Continue your alliance with the Americans, and your struggle with the Indians – Islamabad's major strategic concern – will be a casualty.

That wasn't all he said. Not only did Malik appear to list far fewer attackers than Dawn reported, he said that they resembled Star Wars characters – although an AP reporter tweets that Malik, like so many, may have spaced and meant Star Trek figures instead. (Klingons?) So much for focusing on what matters.

Update, 3:50 p.m.: As some commenters have noted, my friend Rob Farley of the University of Kentucky writes that he thinks the Orions were "were being used by Pakistan as COIN [counterinsurgency] patrol craft," rather than for anti-submarine warfare, so the attack could have been meant to disrupt the Pakistanis' campaign against the militants directly.